Hungary has good reason to be proud after the first full day of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Twenty-seven year old swimmer Katinka Hosszú not only won the gold medal in the 400 metre individual medley, but also beat the world record with her time of 4:26.36. This distinction was previously held by Ye Shiwen, a Chinese swimmer. Ms. Hosszú is often referred to as Hungary’s “Iron Lady.” Her coach, Shane Tusup, is an American swimmer, who has twice been nominated as Hungary’s top swimming coach. Ms. Hosszú and Mr. Tusup are married.
Katinka Hosszú wins gold and breaks world record. Photo: MTI.
On Saturday, Hungary won a second gold medal as well. Emese Szász took home the gold for fencing, in the women’s epee. Ms. Szász beat two-time world champion Rossella Fiamingo of Italy. “I believed in myself and my fencing, and I did it,” remarked Ms. Szász.
Hungarians noted that on Day 1 of the Olympics this small country of just slightly under ten million people finished second worldwide in terms of the medal count, just behind Australia. The liberal 444.hu website hailed it as a “miraculous start.”
Emese Szász, with her coach, after winning gold. Photo: MTI.
Unfortunately, some of the celebration was overshadowed by a completely unnecessary “omission” or outright censorship by Hungary’s public broadcaster. Refugee athletes are participating in the Rio Summer Games. Yusra Mardini, originally from Syria, is one of them and she has garnered a great deal of media attention, including in the Toronto Star.
“In the water, Yusra Mardini feels alive. In the water, Yusra Mardini swam for her life. In the water, Yusra Mardini helped to save the lives of many others”–writes Rosie Dimanno in The Star. The 18 year old ended up winning in the one hundred metre butterfly heat on Saturday. Not too long ago, Ms. Mardini had to swim to safety, fleeing her war-torn homeland, through Turkey and then across the waters in Greece. She and her sister swam for over three hours straight and, incredibly, made it to Europe safely. She trained for the Olympics in Germany.
Disappointingly, during the Hungarian public broadcaster M4’s coverage of the one hundred metre butterfly, they completely and seemingly deliberately neglected to mention Ms. Mardini. Jenő Knézy Jr., who is reporting live from Rio on behalf of the public broadcaster, mentioned four out of the five females competing–the only one he did not utter at all was the name of the Syrian refugee. It was as though she did not even exist– even though viewers could see her on their television screens. Mr. Knézy managed to avoid mentioning her, even after she won.
The hvg.hu news site wondered aloud after the incident: “Is it forbidden to even utter the name of a refugee on Hungarian public television?”
Mr. Knézy claims to have made an innocent mistake, when he forgot to mention the name of the winner of the competition.
